July 19 is National Daiquiri Day.
The Daiquiri is a drink that is both revered and plagued by its simplicity. Just three ingredients are all you need: Rum, lime juice, and sugar. It is so simple that over the years, this drink has endured more alterations and additions than a fading Hollywood starlet.
The Daiquiri is just so damn simple that it encourages tinkering. Or perhaps the desire to complicate food and drink is simply an American trait.
After all, Americans have fully embraced Italy’s Bolognese sauce, with its careful balance of ingredients and long cooking, over the simple, quick, yet sublime cacio e pepe. Americans frequently complicate Mexico’s simple taco – a clever snack consisting of just spiced meat topped with a mix of chopped onion and cilantro atop a tortilla by insisting on the additions of lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and more.
Back to the Daiquiri – The Daiquiri, perhaps more than any other drink, suffered under the drink trends of the 60s and 70s. Expedience was the name of the game. All you need to do is pick up a gallon jug of pre-mixed Daiquiri, Margarita, or Piña Colada, add booze and ice, and switch on the blender. Soon, the majestic Daiquiri was widely known as a staggeringly sweet slush concoction available in a rainbow of colors. For decades (and sadly still in some quarters), the name Daiquiri was permanently fixed with the word strawberry.
Origins of the Daiquiri
Like so many drinks, the origins of the Daiquiri are a bit murky, as there is no shortage of individuals willing to take credit. Some accounts credit the honor to Jennings Cox, an iron miner, who is said to have made the basic mix of Rum, lime juice, and sugar in a small punch or pitcher and named it for the nearby beach and village, Daiquiri.
Several Cuban barmen have also claimed to be the drink’s inventor, while Admiral Lucius W. Johnson, a US naval officer, became smitten with the drink and introduced it to the Army and Navy Club in Washington, DC, and the University Club in Baltimore.
Regardless of which legend you prefer, it’s pretty safe to say that America first came in contact with the drink after the Spanish-American War, when Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders took the island of Cuba. However, the drink never really took off until the days after WWII, as Americans fell in love with all things tropical. 1944’s To Have and Have Not featured Lauren Bacall drinking a Daiquiri. The Daiquiri met the mob in the 1974 classic, The Godfather Part II, when Fredo orders a banana Daiquiri in Cuba.
The simple truth of this simple drink is that, on an island that makes Rum in significant amounts while growing sugar and limes, it is bound to throw them all together at some stage. The Daiquiri, and the same concept by any other name, is just as sweet and an invention of nature.
Build Your Own Daiquiri
Like a drink or dish that relies on so few ingredients, every component better be damn good. The Rum you use, and I insist on a light Rum, must be of the highest quality. Quality Rum is never neutral and imparts the best taste of sugarcane, with sweet, grassy flavors. One of my favorite Daiquiri Rums is Caliche, a Rum made in Puerto Rico at Destileria Serrallés, the same folks who make the tasty Don Q Rums. I am also quite fond of a quality Jamaican White Rum, especially if it is made in part with pot-still rum, showing a pleasing funk associated with the island’s most alluring Rum.
Get the BevX recipe for the great Daiquiri — just three ingredients and you are off on a tropical holiday.
Do you want to better understand cocktails? May we suggest Be A Beverage Expert (BABE), a guide to understanding wine, beer, spirits, and cocktails.